Friends

A look at Bravely Default’s gameplay features

October 4th, 2012 by Tony Garsow

Jobs & Abilities Bravely Default features 24 jobs, all roles one would find at home in a Final Fantasy game: Monk, Black Mage, and Knight for example. Changing jobs will require the use of an Asterisk, and new jobs are obtained by defeating the Jobmasters associated with them.

The game has over 300 abilities associated to its many jobs, and you’ll be able to mix and match from different types once you’ve mastered them to a certain point. This also applies to support abilities, so if your White Mage is a bit frail, train them as a Monk for a while to gain the HP+10% ability.

Brave & Default Combat in Bravely Default makes use of two distinct commands: Brave and Default. In battle you’ll accumulate Brave Points (BP) with which to execute consecutive commands in your turn. Build up enough Brave Points and you’ll be able to use a Phoenix Down item, cast a Blizzard spell, and attack in one turn. However, you’ll need to do this by choosing the Default command to build BP by passing your turn and entering a defensive stance.

Enemies will also make use of the Brave & Default system, even bosses — so tread with caution in your assault. Multiple strong attacks from a boss will leave your party hurting, especially if they have little BP left to recover.

A Limit Break-esque system called Deathblow can be used to execute powerful attacks based on your weapon and it’s respective strength. In the above trailer, we see Tizz as a Red Mage perform a Deathblow with daggers equipped. There are a total of 27 different Deathblows, all ranked on your current job in efficacy.

StreetPass & Abilink Using Streetpass, you’ll be able to download your friends’ job character data. This is used in a few different ways. First, you’ll be able to summon your friends’ characters in battle aid you — summoning them frequently will strengthen them, similar to Final Fantasy VIII’s Guardian Forces. You’ll also be able to unlock levels for your jobs beyond the Level 10 cap using this system.

Norwend Village You’ll be able to rebuild Tizz’s hometown of Norwend one step at a time, which includes managing NPCs and shops. These shops, when successful enough, can sell you items and equipment found nowhere else in the game. It will take you a long time to complete, but using StreetPass can help you attract more NPCs to increase growth.

Final Fantasy official artwork, trailers, characters, merchandise, and music is copyrighted to Square Enix. Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Please read our privacy policy for more information.